New here? Read these ten in order. Each one is short, each one links its source, and together they describe how this site thinks about running a web service.
The advantage of small systems Start with the philosophy: small, legible systems fail in ways you can see.
Reliable defaults beat clever recovery Prefer boring defaults over clever recovery.
HTTP methods are a promise about side effects Methods are promises about side effects; learn the vocabulary first.
Redirects and error codes should preserve the story Status codes tell the story of where a resource went.
Cache headers are a contract with two clocks Caching is two clocks: freshness and validation.
Content-Type should describe the bytes you actually send The bytes and the label must agree.
Cookie scope should be narrower than the application boundary Narrow cookie scope before the application grows.
Security headers should describe the actual page Describe the actual page in headers.
A static server should have one obvious root One obvious root for the whole static deployment.
Read the public edge in two commands The two commands everything else builds on.
Next: Read a live edge the way a client does
Sources
- RFC 9110 — HTTP Semantics, the shared vocabulary behind the beginner path, checked 2026-09-05.
- Caddy Documentation, the server manual behind the release path, checked 2026-09-05.
- MDN: HTTP, practical HTTP reference for the troubleshooting path, checked 2026-09-05.